[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
I was very glad, my dear, to have your letter of the 30th this morning: and that is very good speed, isn’t it? and to have had a letter on a Thursday and another on the following Tuesday is quite glorious. ICharles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetryapparently a certainty;a7 have not yet had any letter from Lowell;1 butMurdock, Kenneth B.;a1 yesterday had another letter from Murdock, taking the ratification for granted; and making suggestions about the lectures and housing; so that if the matter does fall through I shall be very deeply distressed in spite of my mental reservations over its uncertainty.
Neverthelesstravels, trips and plansTSE's 1932–3 year in America;a7which TSE refuses to see as decisive;a3 it all seems quite unreal and will at least until I arrive in Boston (I should want to take a boat straight to Boston harbour). We must always, as you say, make allowances for the possibilities of misunderstandings even between ourselves, in correspondence, which would not occur in speech. ButHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9and the prospect of TSE's Harvard year;b4 I think that things will straighten themselves out. It is essential to begin with to know – as we do – that we shall make our plans quite irrespective of each other; for anything else would merely make things more difficult. I think that to see the situation quite simply and without any pretence or dissimulation, as it is, is always the best way to deal with it. And so I do not see how my coming could ‘force any issue’ between us; and our relationship would be of little worth if it were not quite honest on both sides. I don’t know how much, or in what circumstances, I can endure to see you; but I shall tell you frankly when I do know.
The portrait – the right missing one – has at last come; but this time they forgot to send the mailing envelope, so I must order that; and I don’t know whether you will have it before Christmas or not.
I have been very rushed these last days: the lecture on Marston in the Elizabethan Society went off well. VivienneThorps, the;a9 said she saw the Thorps in the distance, but I did not see them; and had no chance to look afterwards, as I was engaged in conversation by several importunate people. I was much pleased that they should have come. IEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood);a8 believe V. has asked them to a small mixed party on Saturday evening. GordonGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt')staying with the Eliots;a4 George is staying with us for a couple of days, which is a pleasure: weMorrell, Lady Ottolineinvited to dinner chez Eliot;b1 had Ottoline to dinner to meet him last night, and they got on very well, and found acquaintances in common.2 IDryden, John15-minute BBC American broadcast on;a1 am trying to find time to prepare my speech to you on Sunday: difficult to know just what to say about ‘John Dryden’ in fourteen minutes.3 ISaerchinger, César;a2 shallbirdsmockingbird;c7TSE 'the Missouri Mockingbird';a1 ask Mr. Cesar Saerchinger to present me as the Missouri mocking-bird: forAmericaTSE a self-styled 'Missourian';a6 whenAmericaSt. Louis, Missouri;h4TSE styling himself a 'Missourian';a3 asked whether I am English or American, I always say: ‘I am a Missourian’ (andTwain, Markand belonging to the International Mark Twain Society;a1 an honorary member of the International Mark Twain Circle).4 And when is Berkeley Square to come off? I shall have to make a pilgrimage to that spot on that day in your honour – though it is getting to be mostly shops now, and motor car showrooms. And are you hearing any music, or is it too expensive? I loathe the radio, and am yet fascinated by it; andGermanyTSE listening to speeches from;a5 I pretend that I am keeping up languages by listening to political speeches from France, Germany and Rome – and it is still rather a thrill to listen to Warsaw or Budapest, even though they are either talking unintelligible languages or else playing the same dance music as everywhere else. How silly it all is.
I kiss your signature, and remain
1.AbbottLowell, Abbott Lawrence Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), educator and legal scholar; President of Harvard University, 1909–33.
2.OM’s journal (BL Add. MS 88886/4/28) relates this undated encounter at this time:
IMorrell, Lady Ottolinewhich she describes;b2n dined with the Eliots one evening .. It is always a Nerve wracking affair – as one never knows 1/ if he will be sober or drunk .. & if sober, cross .. with blood shot eyes. Or
2/ whether she will be very cracked – & – weak of Ether .. whether she will be dark & Suspicious … or excited & very decoussee [defeated]
I always feel my heart beat when I ring that Bell & that anything may greet me ..
She was dressed in a long Chiffon dress, & looked very odd, & fantastic. The little grey green-face on top of a flowered chiffon dress .. – rather like a little monkey, dressed up.
She was all right & didn’t suffocate me with Ether too much – only she was excited & foolish. However we talked quite happily, -- & Dinner went naturally .. […]
After dinner we talked books., -- & I was so pleased that he admired Paradise Lost. Then he talked about Aldous .. & said that he liked him & was fond of him but didn’t like his mind. […]
I really enjoyed seeing them & talking to them for he is reasonable & clever & Nice when he is in a good mood.
According to Carole Seymour-Jones, ‘Sencourt watched as Vivienne made valiant efforts to hold together a fast fragmenting social life. One evening she asked some literary friends to meet the poet Ralph Hodgson … Certainly she felt at ease with Hodgson, who had the same passion for his bull terrier Pickwick as she had for her Yorkie, Polly … On the evening in question a group of younger writers read their work aloud, but the centre of attention was Ottoline to whom, wrote Sencourt, “Vivienne deferred as if to royalty”; Tom read “Difficulties of a Statesman” ending with the shout: RESIGN, RESIGN. It was an awkward gathering: Ottoline balefully observed Vivienne flirting excitedly with Hodgson who was, apparently, a patient listener; but his hostess, grotesque in flowered chiffon, her little face with its grey-green make-up reminding Ottoline of an overdressed monkey, presented a bizarre yet pitiful spectacle’ (Painted Shadow, 469–70).
3.TSE’s 15-min. radio ‘address’ on John Dryden was to be delivered in the studios of the BBC at Savoy Hill on Sun., 13 Dec. at 5.30; the programme was introduced by César Saerchinger, Director of the European Service, Columbia Broadcasting System.
4.TSE misremembered the name of the Society in question. On 20 Jan. 1931 Cyril Coniston Clemens (1902–99) – a distant cousin of Samuel Langhorn Clemens; founder and president of the International Mark Twain Society – had written to offer TSE honorary membership ‘in recognition of your outstanding contribution to poetry’. TSE accepted the honour on 20 Feb.
3.RobertGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt') Esmonde Gordon George – Robert Sencourt (1890–1969) – critic, historian, biographer: see Biographical Register.
1.AbbottLowell, Abbott Lawrence Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), educator and legal scholar; President of Harvard University, 1909–33.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
1.KennethMurdock, Kenneth B. B. Murdock (1895–1975), Associate Professor of English, Harvard University, 1930–2; Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1931–6; Master of Leverett House, 1931–41. Works include Increase Mather (1924), Literature and Theology in Colonial New England (1949); The Notebooks of Henry James (with F. O. Matthiessen, 1947).
3.CésarSaerchinger, César Saerchinger (1884–1971), American broadcaster and writer; Director of European Service, Columbia Broadcasting System; author of Hello, America! Radio Adventures in Europe (1938), The Way Out of War (1940) and Artur Schnabel: A Biography (1958).